Landfall was always kind of there. I'd had it as "a" deck in my collection from a set or two back, ever since Final Fantasy gave us a couple of cute birds that for some reason don't fly.

I copied my first build of the deck from a Jim Davis video, some five months ago:

Temur "Surprise" Landfall | FIN Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Mossborn Hydra
• 4 Sazh's Chocobo
• 4 Tifa Lockheart
• 4 Traveling Chocobo

• Instants (4)
• 4 Snakeskin Veil

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Worldsoul's Rage

• Lands (26)
• 14 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 2 Terramorphic Expanse
• 4 Escape Tunnel
• 4 Fabled Passage

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Dragonback Assault
• 1 Island
• 2 Magebane Lizard
• 3 Seedship Impact
• 3 Repulsive Mutation

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This version put together the essential pieces of what we'd think of as a Standard Landfall deck (some of which have become less essential over time). The big things are starting with Llanowar Elves or Sazh's Chocobo on turn one, which kind of get the game going.

Llanowar Elves can put you in the driver's seat, Ramping you to Traveling Chocobo (with its great promises of multiple triggers or potential card advantage) or your first look at Mossborn Hydra...

Whereas Sazh's Chocobo might give you the open for an Escape Tunnel or Terramorphic Expanse on turn two. The really spicy draws with this version were a second Sazh's Chocobo on turn two, which would result in two four Landfall triggers before the second flightless bird ever attacked.

For Standard this was my go-to Best-of-Three deck on Magic: The Gathering Arena for some time, because the sideboard ended up being much better than the main deck. The main deck had a lone Mountain (which you could get with Escape Tunnel, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, or the GOAT Fabled Passage) for Worldsoul's Rage. The Worldsoul's Rage really elevated this version of Landfall over all previous ones, giving the main deck a level of card advantage, interaction, and complexity that no purely aggressive build had had before.

(Which is kind of sad given no one plays that card any more.)

But all that went double - or even triple - for the sideboard.

For Control matchups you could swap out the Mountain for an Island and beat the opponent with Repulsive Mutation. This was kind of a window into the future, where some Simic Jackal (or at least Badgermole Cub) decks have strived to protect their little Green men from sweepers. But the games that were even cooler involved playing both Mountain and Island at the same time for...

I don't know if this counted as a transformational sideboard, but your Games Two and Three in some matchups played out quite a bit differently than your Game 1s. The default plan for Temur Landfall was to make a lot of power, quickly, with Sazh's Chocobo, Tifa Lockheart, or Mossborn Hydra... and then kind of just kill the opponent. Pepper in Worldsoul's Rage to eliminate a small blocker while getting additional triggers and you had what was essentially a tricky beatdown deck.

The sideboarded games were so different. Relying on Icetill Explorer's 4 toughness and ability to transform even a single Fabled Passage into all three colors, these games were all about sweeping the opponent's board and then overwhelming them with 4/4 flyers. And I must say it was glorious!

I never really ironed out what I was siding in and out, especially lower on the curve. But everything worked! Did I want to leave in Llanowar Elves to accelerate myself to six mana? Even though they were going to die? Surely I didn't care about Sazh's Chocobo or Tifa Lockheart for beatdown... They were going to prove irrelevant next to a fleet of 4/4 flyers anyway? The coolest was always making Dragons on the opponent's end step. I have to say not having to worry about Tifa math was always kind of refreshing.

Dragonback Assault really was everything to every one. Sure it was great for sweeping opposing small creatures; but which Control decks exactly were good at fielding end step 4/4s every turn?

The complexion of Landfall changed substantially with Avatar: The Last Airbender. Primarily because of Earthbending in its various forms.

This Best-of-One version of Landfall by LegenVD almost broke me. It certainly broke my account!

Best-of-One Landfall | TLA Standard | LegenVD

• Creatures (32)
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 4 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Mossborn Hydra
• 4 Sazh's Chocobo
• 4 Tifa Lockheart
• 4 Traveling Chocobo

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Earthbender Ascension

• Lands (24)
• 14 Forest
• 2 Ba Sing Se
• 4 Escape Tunnel
• 4 Fabled Passage

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As you know I had made a run for Mythic last month with my own Mono-Green deck. I neglected my ranking for the back half of the month because of the holidays, but thought I'd make a late push for high Mythic near the New Year. I thought a fast deck would be the best way to do this, but no matter how hard I tried... LegenVD's version of Landfall didn't push the old rating in the right direction.

It was spiritually a similar deck to the Worldsoul's Rage / Temur Surprise deck, but traded the Red (and Blue sideboard) for the glories of Earthbending.

Earthbender Ascension was a way to search up lands and get more triggers, but more importantly, to give Sazh's Chocobo or creatures buffed by Bristly Bill a way to trample over blockers. Here we see Icetill Explorer becoming a main-deck four-of for the first time. In the era of Earthbending, Icetill Explorer has become the most important long game card in the deck, and one of the principal ways it overcomes Control.

Not only do you go wide and get tons of extra triggers by playing the same Fabled Passage over and over again, but being able to just play Ba Sing Se out of your graveyard becomes a way to win, even when the opponent casts multiple copies of Day of Judgment and even Ultima.

The one thing I'll really credit this deck with is an understanding of Green mirrors in Standard. Most everyone is trying to get an advantage with Badgermole Cub. But which is the best way to go? And who has the advantage heads up? LegenVD argued that Mossborn Hydra would usually, singularly, be the biggest creature on the battlefield; capable, for instance, of trampling over a team buffed by Ouroboroid. This became my North Star philosophy going forward, and helped to guide my win rate when I explored other Landfall decks.

LegenVD never lets me down, but this one deck didn't get me there. Like I said, I was nearly broken for Landfall... Until this glorious revelation from once-and-present Pro Tour Top 8 competitor Arne Huschenbeth.

Selesnya Landfall | TLA Standard | Arne Huschenbeth

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 1 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 2 Mossborn Hydra
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Mightform Harmonizer
• 4 Sazh's Chocobo

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Esper Origins

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Earthbender Ascension

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Lumbering Worldwagon

• Lands (25)
• 10 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 2 Ba Sing Se
• 4 Escape Tunnel
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Hushwood Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 3 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 2 Scrapshooter
• 1 Mossborn Hydra
• 3 Seam Rip
• 2 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Vivien Reid

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To be fair, Jim had also posted a not-dissimilar (and even weirder) Landfall deck around the same time, but Arne's was the model I used for a lightning fast Mythic run just last week, and is about where I am right now.

I love the solo Keen-Eyed Curator, which was kind of a one-card love letter to my December Mythic run. Sometimes you could pre-empt Superior Spider-Man with it. But the even more fun way to beat them was to just go super hard with Icetill Explorer. You'd mill Mill MILL with four or more triggers per turn. They'd Bring the old Last Gift and... Find you had a better battlefield position than they did?

Icetill Explorer would sometimes put more (if not strictly "better") creatures into your graveyard so that when the Living Death-type effect inevitably happened, you'd have a battlefield that could contend with theirs. At least as long as they didn't kill you on the spot.

The reason this deck is so good is that while it retains much of the aggressive elements of previous Landfall decks, it also grafts on a two-card combo kill.

The combo is just to cast Lumbering Worldwagon. Sometimes you can get it turn two with Llanowar Elves. Sometime turn three with a little Badgermole Cub nudging. Sometimes you'd keep a two-spell hand because those were the two spells and maybe the opponent would let you kill them.

The next turn you play (or even just Warp) the Mightform Harmonizer and then immediately Crew your Worldwagon.

In a perfect universe you'd then play Escape Tunnel or Fabled Passage, doubling the Worldwagon's power twice; and attack with it, increasing its power naturally and doubling its power once again.

The absolute smallest Lumbering Worldwagon starts off at 3 power. That is turn two Llanowar Elves with two lands (but then you immediately go and fetch the third). If you don't have a land drop at all (you just attack with the Worldwagon), you go up to four lands but can double its power to eight.

A more boring but still sub-optimal turn is your fourth land (which already grants the Worldwagon up to 8 power). An attack from that point (which will be followed up immediately by a Worldwagon trigger) will bring you to five lands and a second doubling effect. Replace a regular land drop with Escape Tunnel or Fabled Passage and I'm sure you already know the drill.

These sequences are hard to beat even if the opponent has removal that is relevant for an artifact that is never typically a creature on their turn. Often they will have to chump block repeatedly just to stay alive. The Worldwagon's lack of natural trample is an issue, but this is a deck that can help it get trample with Earthbender Ascension or sometimes Esper Origins // Summon: Espr Maduin.

That two-card combo is what puts this deck over the top. More over the top than Worldsoul's Rage did previously (due to its speed) but also because the individual parts are so strong, both in isolation but also in different combinations.

In long games, Icetill Explorer out-cards everyone. Ditto for short ones: My friends prepping for the Regional Championships routinely send me screen shots of Jeskai opponents conceding with three lands in play, facing off double-digit permanents on an early turn. Lumbering Worldwagon hits like a truck - while drawing extra cards - even when it isn't expressly combo-killing the opponent. In some very long games where the opponent has set up more substantial defenses, Mightform Harmonizer and Icetill Explorer will often team up with Earthbender Ascension to make three or more large, trampling, attackers. There is nothing more gratifying than an Azorius Artifacts opponent, whose Pinnacle Starcage did nothing, throwing up their hands because a half-dozen 7/7 Simulacrum Synthesizer tokens are nowhere near big enough to stop the trampling Landfall assault.

In my own Mythic run I liked the Mono-White matchup a lot. Usually my Green creatures got bigger, faster, than their Scavenger +1/+1 counters. But every once in a while one of those jerks would just have turn two Sheltered By Ghosts... Into turn three Sheltered By Ghosts (you know the drill). I love how Arne's sideboard solves these problems. Either with a two-for-one or our own Sheltered By Ghosts. Take that Mono-White! It's Cena / Styles 2025: I'm stealing your finishing move.

But didn't I say this was a Landfall villain arc?

I haven't tried this version yet, but it looks both diabolical and so much fun. Brought to you by Pro Tour Hall of Famer Brian Kibler, it's like a Control Sazh's Chocobo brew:

Unstoppable Birdbending | TLA Standard | Brian Kibler

• Creatures (7)
• 1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 2 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Sazh's Chocobo

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Ugin, Eye of the Storm

• Instants (5)
• 1 Shoot the Sheriff
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 2 The End

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Glimpse the Core
• 3 Day of Black Sun
• 4 Shared Roots

• Enchantments (10)
• 2 The Rise of Sozin // Fire Lord Sozin
• 4 Earthbender Ascension
• 4 Hollowmurk Siege

• Lands (26)
• 7 Forest
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Restless Cottage
• 4 Ba Sing Se
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Wastewood Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Duress
• 2 Intimidation Tactics
• 1 The End
• 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 2 Zero Point Ballad
• 2 Heritage Reclamation
• 1 Terrasymbiosis
• 1 Vivien Reid
• 1 Ghost Vaccuum

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This deck is wild. Five Wrath of God variants (seven after board)... and 1-drop attackers? The Rise of Sozin plus The End? I loved in one match when Kibler had The Rise of Sozin on Chapter Two against an Airbending Combo deck he had just swept... and the opponent went for a desperation Appa, Steadfast Guardian. "Nah," said the Dragonmaster. "The End Appa." This of course forced the concession.

Kibler's deck uses Hollowmurk Siege to gain card advantage while making power with Sazh's Chocobo or via Earthbending. And to that end, he plays all four copies of Ba Sing Se PLUS six Rampant Growth variants to replace the missing Llanowar Elves.

To me The Rise of Sozin seems like one of the coolest end game cards you can play... But he's also got Ugin, Liliana, and Vivien Reid in the mix. Bring on the bad guys!

LOVE

MIKE